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Monkeypox (MPX) resources and vaccination information for sex workers are now available.
Information about MPX with photos of symptoms can be found here.
Find MPX vaccination information for your state and territory here.
How to use the resource
The Red Book Online contains health and safety information by sex workers, for sex workers. There are a lot of ways sex workers can use the Red Book Online! Here are some of the most common uses, based on sex worker feedback:
- Find information about STI and BBV prevention, treatment, testing and symptoms, including symptom images
- Find general information about sexual health and sex work
- Find information for people who are new to the sex industry to feel empowered to navigate workplace health and safety, negotiate with our clients, and make the right choices for us about our health and wellbeing at work
- Understand common sex industry terminology and abbreviations
- Get a referral to a sex worker-friendly health care service or a sex worker peer organisation
- Learn how to check for visible signs of STIs
- Pick up sex worker skillshare and harm reduction strategies
- Understand legal obligations about sex working with BBV and/or STI
There are a few different ways to find the information you’re looking for:
- BROWSE the resource using the menu headings
- SEARCH for what you’re looking for in our search bar
- Use our QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE, designed to help you quickly navigate STI and BBV symptoms you encounter in your sex work
If you don’t find what you’re looking for, here are some other options for finding the information you need:
- Contact your local sex worker peer organisation and speak to a peer educator. They are so knowledgeable and can help you navigate the world of sex work!
- Contact us and let us know what you’re looking for. We will try to help you find it.
This resource is a sex worker-led project. It has incorporated the efforts of sex workers, peer educators, sex worker organisations, community organisations and health professionals across Australia. It is made by sex workers, for sex workers.
Our language and terminology
In recognition of the diversity of the sex worker community, we have deliberately tried to use language and terminology that is gender-neutral. As sex workers, the tools of our trade – and the parts of our bodies most at risk of STIs and BBVs – are our mouths, our bums, our penises and our vaginas. We hope that by only referring to these body parts, rather than the sex or gender identity of the person who owns them, this resource will be more useful to, and inclusive of, all sex workers. We recognise that not everyone uses the same words for these body parts, but in order to be as clear and accessible as possible, we have used these terms where necessary.
Sexually Transmissible Infections (STI) used to be called Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) and before that, Venereal Disease (VD), but STI is now the accepted terminology.
Where possible, we try to use plain language and avoid medical jargon or unexplained abbreviations. We try to use words and terms commonly used in the sex worker community. If you’re new to that space, you may want to check out our sex work glossary.
How our resources are created
Our resources are written by Scarlet Alliance staff and reviewed by sex worker focus groups, sexual health clinicians (where applicable), and our organisation’s leadership. All of our resources are informed by community consultation, best practice standards in sex worker peer education and harm reduction, the best available clinical and epidemiological information, and our community health colleagues. This ensures that the resource is accurate, relevant and reflects our diverse experiences, identities, contexts and needs.
Our translations are conducted by specialised professional translators and sex worker peer translators and are then peer-checked to ensure that the language is culturally-appropriate and clear. We currently provide resources in the languages most commonly spoken in the sex worker community in so-called Australia: Thai, Simplified Chinese, Korean and English.
The Red Book Online is an essential part of the ongoing success of the sex worker community response to BBV and STI, and assisting sex workers in implementing harm reduction strategies in our workplaces. Peer education is one of the most important tools for keeping sex workers and our communities safe, healthy and empowered.
Red Book History
Much of the content builds on the printed resource, The Scarlet Alliance STI Handbook: A Reference Guide for Sex Workers to Sexually Transmissible Infection (“Red Book”). Red Book was first developed in 1998 with updates in 2003 and 2009. Many sex workers may be familiar with the pocket-sized Red Book that sex worker organisations have been handing out on outreach to sex worker workplaces for many years. The book is not currently available in that format, but all of the information it contains is regularly updated here on Red Book Online.
